British Airways issues profits warning due to the effects of the Coronavirus

British Airways owner IAG has warned that its profits for the coming year will be hit by the effects of the coronavirus.

The airline group said flight suspensions to China and cancellations on Italian routes would affect how many passengers it would carry this year.

Due to uncertainty about the impact and duration of the current outbreak, it was not possible to say how much profits would be hit, it said.

Rival EasyJet has said it is cancelling some flights due to the virus.

The budget carrier said that, following the increased number of coronavirus cases in Northern Italy, it had seen “a significant softening of demand and load factors into and out of our Northern Italian bases”.

“As a result we will be making decisions to cancel some flights, particularly those into and out of Italy, while continuing to monitor the situation and adapting our flying programme to support demand.”